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why are old routes so hard? e.g. Kingdom Come 27-Apr-2010 At 5:05:08 PM cruze

Message

On 27/04/2010 freesolo wrote:
>electric warrior, except for one boulder move near the start, is actually
>about 18, if you know how to crack climb. most of the people i saw struggling
>on it didn't know how to hand or finger jam, so it ends up being a stiff
>20 or more.
Perhaps that was my problem but I actually thought that crack climbing any of it was harder than face climbing it and I don't usually have a problem with cracks - well at least not grade 18 cracks that you are suggesting (including Frog 18s and some dolerite 18s although no Ben Lomond splitters). The top section could be climbed in a number of different ways, my main concern was with the bottom. Upon reflection I think that a little bit of body tension would have gone a long way on that route.
>
>morfyyd is another climb that is very easy if you are comfortable hand
>jamming. again, one move at the bottom is boulder'y and the rest is bomber
>jams. but most of my mates when i was there struggled with the upper 2/3rds
Agreed. Except the "very easy" part. It is all relative. Morfyyd is solid 19.
>
>
>from the perspective of getting pumped forearms, tannin is harder than
>electric warrior because there's only one hand jam on the whole route.
I disagree. Tannin has good rests and can be easily read. Both routes have fantastic gear which can be placed whenever the leader is comfortable. I didn't feel the need to hand jam anything on Tanin from memory. Electric Warrior has rests everywhere as well but I think that the climbing is significantly harder to read.
>
>squeakeasy is a great climb for both jamming and face moves - just enough
>jams to give your forearms a rest.
Agreed.
>
>i would say most victorian climbers don't get enough crack practice. just
>go spend a xmas holiday at ben lomond and all those cracks at araps will
>be a piece of piss.
I find that glassy bulging flaring Arapiles cracks climb totally differently to frictional parallel hand and foot jamming on Dolerite.

I guess this just goes to show that I should improve my jamming, and that we are all different.